


what we are is just right

by seeingrightly



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 08:43:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5490938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seeingrightly/pseuds/seeingrightly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It’s silly! But I feel like maybe they like each other? Like, like-like each other. Only I don’t know what to do about it because if I ask Nursey, he’ll laugh at me, and if I ask Dex, he’ll punch me, and I don’t know what else to do or if I even should do anything? But if they could, you know, be dating instead of fighting, or dating and fighting, wouldn’t that be better?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	what we are is just right

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maidofliquid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maidofliquid/gifts).



> i hope you like this, [maidofliquid](http://archiveofourown.org/users/maidofliquid/pseuds/maidofliquid)! i never thought i'd end up writing polyfrogs, but it was the prompt that was easiest for me, so here i am. hopefully i did alright with voices and everything.
> 
> thanks to [alicia](onelilsweater.tumblr.com) and [melissa](princejackzimmermann.tumblr.com) for looking this over
> 
> title from "make it up" by the blow
> 
> written for the following prompt, which i made much more complicated than it had to be oops:
> 
> Chowder finally convinces Dex and Nursey to go on a date, and like they have fun and everything but they end up talking about Chowder about 80% of the time (ex. "oh man if only Chowder were here he'd love this")

Chowder knocks on Bitty’s door before he registers the sound of Bitty talking. It’s fine, ‘cause Bitty’s probably either talking to his mom on the phone or recording a video or maybe Skyping with Jack? Bitty’s talking to someone most of the time. Chowder knows. He can usually hear the faint sounds of Bitty talking or the not-so-faint sounds of Bitty singing from across the hall. He doesn’t mind, especially since Bitty never minds when Chowder accidentally interrupts him.

“Hey!” Bitty says when he opens the door, his cheeks kind of pink. “Sorry that took me a second. I just had to say bye to Jack.”

“It’s cool,” Chowder says. “Um, can I talk to you?”

“Of course,” Bitty says, pulling him into the room by the arm.

Chowder sits down in Bitty’s desk chair. Bitty settles on the bed with his legs crossed. He pulls Senor Bunny onto his lap and plays with one of the ears, looking at Chowder expectantly.

Chowder’s not really sure where to start.

Well, yeah he is.

“Dex and Nursey are fighting a lot,” he says.

“Okay,” Bitty says slowly, and he has a point, ‘cause it’s not exactly new.

Chowder rubs a hand over his face. He doesn’t know how to say what he wants to say without it sounding silly.

“Is anyone else home?” he asks, glancing toward the open door.

“Ransom and Holster are up in the attic,” Bitty says. “No one else was here when I put my cookies in the oven. Actually -”

Just as he reaches for his phone, the timer goes off downstairs.

“Do you mind?” he asks.

Chowder shakes his head, and he follows Bitty downstairs, slumping into one of the kitchen chairs. Bitty turns off the timer and grabs his oven mitts and pulls out two trays, setting them out to cool. The kitchen smells like peanut butter. No one’s requested those since Jack graduated, but Bitty keeps making them anyway.

Bitty pulls off the mitts and sits down across from Chowder.

“Now,” he says. “Is it… different fighting, or… more of it, or…”

“Yeah,” Chowder says. “I mean, yeah, they’re fighting more than usual, and it’s meaner than usual.”

He pulls at the strings on his hoodie, not really looking at Bitty.

“I feel like,” he says, and then he stops.

“Chowder,” Bitty says, very seriously. “It’s not like you to be this quiet. Did something happen?”

“No!” Chowder yelps. “No, nothing happened, I just - it’s silly! But I feel like maybe they like each other? Like, _like-like_ each other. Only I don’t know what to do about it because if I ask Nursey, he’ll laugh at me, and if I ask Dex, he’ll punch me, and I don’t know what else to do or if I even should do anything? But if they could, you know, be dating instead of fighting, or dating and fighting, wouldn’t that be better?”

He glances up at Bitty, finally, his face a little warm, to see Bitty looking at him like Chowder is a puppy.

Just as Bitty opens his mouth, there’s a thud from the living room, and Chowder whips around to see Nursey stick his head over the back of the couch, looking equal parts embarrassed and sleepy.

“Uh,” he says, right as Bitty yells, “I told you people not to sleep on that _thing_.”

“Were you there the whole time,” Chowder says, too loud and too squeaky and much too late.

“Yyyyeah,” Nursey says. “The timer woke me up. So.”

Chowder lets out a despairing little moan and covers his face with his hands, and he hears Bitty jump up out of his seat, probably to do damage control, but Nursey huffs out a laugh, and Chowder peeks through his fingers.

“Chill, guys,” he says, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, but that doesn’t hide the faint blush that spreads across his cheeks. “I mean. It’s not like I know what to do about it either.”

Chowder’s hands drop to his lap, and Bitty, standing behind him, drops his hands to Chowder’s shoulders.

“You mean -” Chowder starts, but Bitty grips his shoulders so he stops.

“Yeah, I guess,” Nursey says. “Normally I’d be cool to just roll with this kinda thing but uh - _who_ it is makes it a little difficult.”

“Thank you for trusting us,” Bitty says, his voice going kind of formal, and Nursey laughs again.

“Don’t worry. Shitty already gave me that speech.”

Bitty exhales hard against the top of Chowder’s head and stops digging his nails into his shoulders.

“Oh good,” he says, and then continues hopefully, “Did he give you any good advice?”

“Nah,” Nursey said, getting off the couch and coming to sit in the kitchen. “Bro’s gotta figure out how to help himself first, you know? Besides, I didn’t really tell him details, just kinda let it slip while we were smoking up on the roof once that I wasn’t sure what was going on. He was like, _amen, brother_ , and that was mostly it.”

“Well are you sure now?” Chowder asks.

Nursey shoots him an amused look.

“That I’m bi? Yeah. About the specific situation at hand? Not a fucking clue. Like you said, don’t wanna get punched.”

Bitty sits down and lets out a sigh.

“That’s tricky,” he says, smiling a little sadly. “I wish I could give you advice, but -”

“But these situations suck,” Nursey says. “I know, bro.”

Chowder looks between them, at the slumped shoulders and furrowed eyebrows. He takes a deep breath.

He’ll figure something out.

-

It takes a few weeks, and in the end it’s not something Chowder plans. It just kind of happens. Because beer. And tub juice. And shots of Fireball.

He’s feeling warm, really warm, and he’s thinking about taking off his sweatshirt but then the back door opens and Nursey comes inside, a huge smirk on his face, so Chowder decides to go sit out on the porch.

Dex is sitting on the steps, and he scowls over his shoulder like he’s ready to start yelling, but when he sees Chowder he closes his mouth and turns back around.

“Hey,” Dex says glumly.

“Hey buddy,” Chowder says, sitting down one the steps and throwing his arm over Dex’s shoulder.

Dex doesn’t move into it or anything, but he also doesn’t shove him away, so that’s nice. His ears are really red and the almost-empty solo cup is cracking in his fist.

“What’s up,” Chowder says, and Dex lets out a little growl.

“Tell me to chill one more time,” he hisses, and then he leans forward and rests his forehead on Chowder’s knee.

Chowder blinks. Dex must be pretty drunk. Tentatively, he brings his hand up to pat at Dex’s back.

“He’s so _annoying_ ,” Dex says. “We can’t even have a conversation where he doesn’t make fun of me.”

“You chirp him too,” Chowder says, frowning a little. “Everybody chirps everybody.”

“No, it’s different,” Dex says. “I think he hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you,” Chowder says, and Dex pulls back to look at him. “Do you hate him?”

“No,” Dex says, scowling. “Sometimes. I don’t know. He’s confusing.”

“He thinks you’re confusing too,” Chowder says.

Dex sighs and puts down his cup. It topples off the steps and onto the grass, but Dex doesn’t notice. He puts his elbows on his knees and rests his head in his hands. Chowder pats his back again, making a mental note to pick up the cup when they go inside.

“Everything is confusing,” Dex says. “It would be less confusing if I hated him all the time.”

Chowder bites his lip. This could be his chance. But he doesn’t wanna push too far. Or piss Dex off.

“It’s okay to be confused,” he says, and then he winces, and Dex doesn’t say anything.

“I think Nursey feels the same way,” he tries again.

Dex scoffs.

“No, really,” Chowder says, as seriously as possible. “I think Nursey feels the same way you do.”

Dex stiffens under his hand, and then he shakes his head.

“I gotta get some water,” he says, and Chowder’s hand falls from his back as he stands up and heads unsteadily into the Haus.

Chowder sighs.

He’s still got work to do.

-

The plan is dangerous.

It’s dangerous and it might backfire, but he can’t come up with anything better.

He sends the texts and sits on his bed with his statistics textbook and a notebook in front of him, tapping his pencil against his knee and clutching his stuffed shark under one arm, and he waits.

Nursey texts him first.

_chowder i thought this was a team dinner why am i the only one at applebees_

Chowder is trying to figure out what to say when Nursey texts again.

_did you tell me the wrong time again? i actually dressed up in a way bitty will approve of this time so it better not be for nothing_

Chowder bites his lip and types out a response.

_don’t worry u wont b the only 1 there i promise :))) im sure u look very nice_

While he waits, Chowder stares at a word problem and chews on his pencil. There are no texts for a while. He thinks about texting to ask if everything is okay, but he doesn’t want to interrupt if they _are_ going okay…

His phone rings. It’s Dex.

“Hi?” Chowder says.

“Chowder, what is this,” Dex barks.

It’s noisy, like he’s standing out on the street. He can hear someone talking in the background, and he can’t understand the words but he’s pretty sure it’s Nursey, because Dex starts yelling indecipherably too.

Chowder groans and hangs up. He opens up their group chat and sends a text.

_come 2 the haus_

After a moment, he adds another.

_sorry :( :( :(_

It doesn’t take them very long to arrive, because the Applebee’s Chowder sent them to is pretty close, and Dex is a fast driver when he’s angry and just in general, and Nursey is kind of a scary driver and really good at keeping up with Dex. The pencil falls out of his mouth when the front door bangs open and the yelling starts.

Lardo pops her head into Chowder’s room from the bathroom.

“You know what that’s about?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Chowder says sadly.

“You gonna handle it?”

“Yeah,” he says, even more sadly.

“Cool,” Lardo says. “I’ll warn Bits not to get involved. But text us if you need rescuing.”

She closes the bathroom door behind her when she leaves.

Chowder closes his textbook and his notebook and moves them off to the side before sliding to the edge of the bed just in time for his door to open. Dex is standing there, his face as red as his hair, and Nursey is just behind him, looking pretty pink as well.

“Uh, hey,” Chowder says.

Dex stomps into the room and sits down on his desk chair hard, sending it skidding a foot or so into the dresser. Nursey comes inside and closes the door, leaning back against it. He looks more uncomfortable than Chowder has ever seen him. Dex has his arms crossed and is staring at the window, and Nursey clears his throat but doesn’t move.

“I was just trying to help,” Chowder says too quickly. “I just thought you weren’t going to do it yourselves -”

“I wasn’t going to do it at all,” Dex says, right as Nursey says, “I had a pretty good reason for that -”

They stare at each other.

“You _did_ know why Chowder sent us there?” Nursey asks.

“So did you!” Dex yells, throwing out an arm.

Nursey sighs and turns to Chowder.

“Look, man, I appreciate that you were trying to help me out -”

“Trying to help _you_ out?” Dex asks quietly.

“Uh,” Chowder says, “uh, okay, hopefully it’ll fix things and not make things worse if I say this, but I was helping you _both_ out. With the same thing. At the same time.”

“Oh,” Nursey says.

“ _Oh_ ,” Dex says.

“So, yeah, maybe my plan was terrible,” Chowder says, “but I didn’t know what else to do? And I really wanted to help? ‘Cause, like, you guys are my best friends and you were fighting so much and I was pretty sure I knew what was happening and I tried to investigate but I still wasn’t sure how else to make it happen without more yelling? And it didn’t happen without more yelling but, like, at least it happened. Kind of? Or it can happen now. I mean. It should happen now. Right? You guys are gonna go on a real date now, right?”

Nursey laughs and comes over to sit heavily on the bed next to Chowder and throws an arm over his shoulder.

“Dude,” he says, and plants a kiss on the top of Chowder’s head. “Shut up.”

Dex is still sitting on the computer chair and he’s still really red, but he looks less angry and more embarrassed. Nursey reaches out and kicks at the seat of the chair til it starts to spin. Dex growls, but the moment he grabs Nursey’s foot, Nursey pulls him toward the bed. Chowder grins and rests his feet on the legs of the chair so Dex can’t push away.

Dex huffs, and then reaches out to lightly punch Chowder’s knee.

“You better pick somewhere better than Applebee’s next time,” he says.

-

Dex is more nervous than Nursey is, so Bitty goes to Dex’s to help him get ready and Chowder goes to Nursey’s. Honestly, though, Chowder is probably the most nervous, and he winds up sitting on Nursey’s bed hugging a pillow as Nursey gets dressed.

“I like your shirt,” Chowder says when Nursey emerges from his closet, and Nursey winks.

“Yeah, thanks for the fashion advice, dude,” he laughs, and Chowder frowns.

“Well I wanna help but you’re better at clothes than I am,” Chowder says, definitely not pouting.

Nursey adjust his collar and turns to look at Chowder for a moment. He smiles.

“I don’t know which shoes to wear,” he says. “You think I should go with the brown ones or the boots?”

Chowder leans over the edge of the bed to look at the shoes strewn across the floor.

“I like the boots,” he says, “even though I almost tripped to death over them on the way in.”

“Okay, Bitty,” Nursey says, scooping up the boots and sitting down on his desk chair to put them on.

Chowder tucks his face into the pillow for a moment.

“Are you nervous?” he asks.

Nursey shrugs, still tying his laces.

“Not really,” he says. “You got us past the weird, uncomfortable part, right? I figure now it’ll just be the usual yelling and chirping but maybe plus some other stuff.”

“Right,” Chowder says.

“Come on,” Nursey says, clapping Chowder on the knee. “I’ll drop you off at the Haus.”

“You’re driving? I thought Dex was driving.”

“Aw, shit,” Nursey says, and he pulls out his phone.

-

Chowder tries to work on his statistics homework. He really does. He has absolutely no plans to check in on how the date is going and if they like the restaurant he chose this time and if Dex likes the boots he picked out and if they ordered what he suggested they order.

None.

But then his phone buzzes. It’s a text from Dex.

_the breadsticks are really good_

Chowder smiles and sends back a thumbs up and a winky face, and then he sees that he has a Snapchat notification.

There’s a selfie of Nursey with the Samwell filter, and then there’s a picture that Dex clearly did not know was being taken as he bites into a breadstick, and then there’s a video of Nursey dancing along to the restaurant’s music while in the bathroom.

Dex texts him again.

_we haven’t killed each other yet are you impressed_

Chowder replies: _YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD_

He should probably text Nursey too, just to make sure things are going well on both ends.

_having fun?_

Nursey replies with a Snap of Dex giving the middle finger, and then one of himself giving a thumbs up.

 _good_ , Chowder replies.

He kind of gives up on his stats homework entirely, lying on his stomach on his bed. Bitty knocks on his door before sticking his head in.

“How’s the date going?” he asks.

“Seems to be going pretty well,” Chowder says. “Their food just got there but the waiter forgot that Dex didn’t want any tomato on his burger.”

Bitty blinks.

“Oh,” he says. “Well, that’s good. Not the tomato part, but the rest of it.”

“Yeah,” Chowder says, before glancing back down at his phone when it buzzes.

It’s a Snapchat of their food. When Chowder looks back up, Bitty’s gone.

-

He’s dozing on top of his stats book when his phone buzzes. He hadn’t gotten any messages for a while, after they’d paid for their meal, so he kind of assumed they were hooking up or something, and he didn’t want to interrupt that to ask how the date was overall. When he checks his phone, though, he has a text from Nursey.

_hey can we come over_

That doesn’t sound good. While he waits, he checks to make sure there aren’t any messages or Snaps he missed and tries to remember if there were any hints that things were starting to go downhill. He jumps and nearly drops his phone when there’s a knock on his door.

“Come in,” he says, rolling to the edge of the bed and sitting up.

Dex comes in first, biting his lip, and goes to lean against the dresser. He’s wearing his salmon button-up that he hates but Bitty loves. Nursey follows, looking a little sheepish, and he comes over and sits at the other end of the bed, facing both of them.

“Uh,” Chowder says.

“So we were talking,” Nursey says. “That’s why we didn’t send you anything in awhile.”

“Oh,” Chowder says, “so you weren’t -”

“No,” Dex says, “but - ugh. Just tell him.”

“Why do I have to tell him?” Nursey asks, and normally Chowder would expect him to be teasing Dex, but instead he looks nervous, kind of like the way he looked when he first overheard Bitty and Chowder talking about him.

“Tell me what?”

“Okay,” Nursey says, “okay, so, you know we were both talking to you the whole time we were there.”

“It was weird without you there,” Dex says.

“We, uh, we want you to come next time,” Nursey says.

“There’s gonna be a next time?” Chowder asks, and then, “Wait, you want me to… come on your date.”

It’s… not that weird, honestly, he’s crashed lots of dates before, usually by accident. He’s pretty sure he’s crashed some dates that Jack and Bitty didn’t even know were dates, actually. Maybe this is like that - they need a buffer, or something. Chowder is a great buffer, and if the next date goes as surprisingly smoothly as this one did, well, it’ll be the nicest Dex and Nursey have ever been to each other in his presence, probably.

Nursey laughs, and it’s kind of shaky, and that gets Chowder’s attention.

“Well it wouldn’t just be our date,” Nursey says, and then he makes a face. “Dude, look, I don’t know what to tell you, I’m honestly gonna call Shitty after I go home and talk this out with him, but we want to, uh, to date you too.”

“Is that,” Dex starts, and then he tries again. “Uh, do you - want to date us too?”

“Oh,” Chowder says.

He looks at Dex, who’s biting his lip and looking down at his crossed arms. His ears are bright red. He looks at Nursey, who’s tapping his phone against his leg with one hand and scratching at his beard with the other, looking up at the ceiling.

“Oh,” Chowder says. “Yeah, duh.”

“Duh?” Dex repeats, disbelieving.

“Well if I knew that was an option the whole time, I wouldn’t have had to send you guys on that horrible date in the first place,” Chowder says. “I could have just brought you to Applebee’s myself.”

“Christopher Chow,” Nursey says, clapping him on the thigh, “we are _not_ going to Applebee’s.”

“Ever again,” Dex says as he sits down on Chowder’s other side.

“But I love Applebee’s,” Chowder says sadly.

Nursey and Dex look at each other, and then they both groan.

“We’re going to fucking Applebee’s, aren’t we,” Dex says.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at [jaqueslaurent](jaqueslaurent.tumblr.com)


End file.
